| NFL Ardath Cup | |
|---|---|
| Tournament details | |
| Dates | 20 March – 26 July 1977 |
| Teams | 22 |
| Venue(s) | 5 (in 3 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Norwood (3rd title) |
| Runners-up | East Perth |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 21 |
| Attendance | 64,818 (3,087 per match) |
← 1976 1978 → | |
The 1977 NFL Championship Series was the 2nd edition of the NFL Night Series, an NFL-organised national club Australian rules football tournament between the leading clubs from the SANFL, the WANFL, the VFA and State Representative Teams.[1]
Following the success of the 1976 competition, the 1977 edition was originally planned to be a full-scale national competition that would feature all the VFL, SANFL and WANFL teams plus representative teams from Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT. But in late 1976, the VFL announced they were withdrawing from the national competition to form their own rival night series, the VFL Night Series.
Following this decision, the NFL decided to replaces the VFL teams with the top four VFA teams from the previous season, a surprising move considering the VFA was expelled from the ANFC in 1970.